Products I Actually Use and What I’d Skip
Everything here I've used myself. If something failed or wasn't worth it, I say so.
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Bringing home your first chicks
The highest-stress moment in the hobby. This is where most beginners overspend on the wrong things and underspend on the one thing that matters. Here's where I'd put the money.
Laundry Basket, Plastic Tub, Box, etc
You don’t need a fancy box for new chicks you are bringing home or hatched yourself. I’ve hatched hundreds and then raised them in a simple laundry basket with a puppy potty pad, food dish, waterer, and brooder plate. We’ve had old Amazon boxes and storage tubs we’ve used now and then. Save the money for the brooder plate.
Brinsea EcoGlow Brooder Plate
The one item I won't compromise on. It mimics how a mother hen actually warms chicks instead of blasting heat from above. It’s adjustable. It works. Clamp heat lamps are the #1 cause of coop fires. The EcoGlow costs more. It's not optional.
Potty Pads
For the first few weeks I have the chicks on a puppy potty pad. Especially for smaller breeds, it’s easy for them to move around and they fit nicely in a regular laundry basket. Easy to clean. When they get older you can swap out with shavings.
Chick Nipple Drinker
Once the chicks get a little bigger we graduate them from a shallow dish to these. We use dozens of these in the coops and they keep the water clean. They also sell parts that you can put in buckets for larger flock waterers (we do this too). Remember to check the function and clean them regularly. At least here in Florida the algae can grow and water hardness can gum up the nipples.
Metal Feeders
We use these in our smaller coops and breeder boxes. They are easy to mount in a few different ways and hold a nice amount of food with a hinged cover. When we travel for multiple days it tends to be enough food for them to not require a daily refill. They come in a 2 pack.
Feed and daily care
You'll buy these more than anything else. Get ones you trust.
Kalmbach Crumbles Chicken Feed
I’ve tried a lot of feed and this is the one that I’ve had the best results, especially with my chicks thriving. It’s an all flock mix so I can safely feed it to male and female. I’ll supplement the females with calcium as needed. I have it sent regularly from Chewy
Buntie Worms Meal Worms
An occasional treat and easy way to feed train your birds. I’ve tried a lot of brands and these are very consistent in their quality.
Cat Claw Clippers
All around great tool and I keep several of them around the house, barn and show box. Easy way to trim claws and spurs without the vibration of something like a Dremel.
Coop and run
Two things people consistently underinvest in early: predator protection and ventilation. The automatic door can wait. The hardware cloth cannot.
Hardware Cloth
Chicken wire keeps chickens in. Hardware cloth keeps predators out. Those are different problems. Raccoons pull right through chicken wire. Learn this before you lose a bird, not after.
We buy these in bulk. We are usually doing larger projects so we buy these longer 100’ rolls for much less than multiple home improvement store rolls. We’ve also retrofit much of our older chicken wire on coops with hardware cloth.
Veemi Coop Scoop
This is my favorite way to clean our sand floor coops. It sifts through the sand easily and the front tines dig in quickly. The large scoop makes cleaning quick!
Coop Cups
These are perfect for show cage cups. Small enough for easy transport and they nest together. They hang easily on the show cages and even transport boxes too. Buy a few more than you think you need.
First aid basics
Have these before you need them. With most flock health issues, acting fast is the difference.
Rooster Booster
A staple of my emergency kit. I keep it around for when I have birds that need a little bit of an energy boost if they are dealing with stress, injury or illness. Mixes easily in their water.
Miticide
For when you need to treat for mites. A little bit gets diluted in a lot of water so it should last a while considering the price of this or similar treatments.
Show and grooming
For when you're getting birds ready for competition. Don't worry about this section until you're there.
Luster’s Pink Sheen Spray
Show-day feather finishing. A little goes a long way. Adds the sheen without weighing feathers down. Too much and you’ll annoy the judges that have to handle hundreds of birds per show.
Cowboy Magic Greenspot Remover
For stains and soil on feathers before a show. Works better than anything else I've tried for pre-show cleanup. No rinse necessary.
Avon Skin-So-Soft
This works well for treating scaly leg mites and adding to combs or wattles for some shine.
Pure Soap Flakes
A little goes a long way. Doesn’t seem to dry out feathers like Dawn dish soap does.
Hatching your own
This is a bigger step in your journey and a couple of key tools can help improve your success rate.
Incubator
These are great and consistent option for smaller batches of eggs. We’ve tried others and these work the best.
Nurture Right 360 - Shop on Amazon
MATICOOPX 20 Egg - Shop on Amazon
MATICOOPX 30 Egg - Shop on Amazon
Egg Candler
Super simple tool to see how the eggs are progressing. Nothing complex. It just works.
Nice to have, once the basics are done
These aren't essentials and I wouldn't recommend them to someone just getting started. But we've tested them, we kept them, and there are specific reasons why. I'll tell you exactly what those are so you can decide if it's worth it for your setup. Keep in mind that some of these are not small purchases.
Dog and Cat Box Blow Dryer
Game changer for drying birds after washing. I can place 1 or more birds in at a time and they dry unattended within an hour. No more drying by hand!
Omlet feeder
There are a lot of automatic feeders on the market. This Omlet model is very consistent and is the right height for the different bantam and full size breeds we raise.
One of our biggest challenges on the farm is rats and mice. The thing that the Omlet provides is automatic doors that open at dawn and close at night to prevent an easy meal for the rodents.
GQF 1500 Incubator
What I use. It holds humidity consistently, runs reliably, and the egg tray options matter more than I expected since I am incubating eggs of all sizes.
In a word—volume. It can hold a lot of eggs. If you don’t hatch a lot, you don’t need it. Running a separate incubator and hatcher means you’re not opening the incubator at lockdown and tanking your humidity at the worst possible moment. It also makes it easier for me to start eggs across different weeks with enough room for separation. Like the hatcher below it comes down to volume and the both take a fair amount of space with the water tanks.
IMPORTANT: These models are very customizable so make sure you order the appropriate trays for the sizes of eggs you will hatch.
GQF 1550 Hatcher
I run a separate hatcher and it’s not optional in my setup anymore. At lockdown I move eggs from the incubator to the hatcher and don’t open it again until chicks are dry. The incubator never gets contaminated with hatch debris and I can start the next set without a full cleanout between runs. It changed my workflow significantly.
Do you need this? Probably not. Like the incubator it comes down to volume. I’ve run multiple smaller incubators and they work great but I can also have better control over separation during hatching between the different trays.
What I’d Skip
Nobody tells you what not to buy. These aren't worth it, especially when you're just starting out.
The $15 clamp heat lamp
These start more coop fires than anything else on the market. The brooder plate costs more and it's the one thing not to cheap out on. Full stop.
"Complete starter kits"
They bundle cheap feeders and waterers at a significant markup. You'll replace half of it within a month. You're better off buying individual pieces you actually choose.
Gimmick immune-booster supplements
Marketed heavily at anxious new owners. Clean water, a quality feed, and electrolytes when needed do the same job. Save the money. If you have chronic health issues there are bigger issues you need to investigate.
An automatic coop door as a day-one purchase
Wait until you have a real routine and know your birds. The door makes a lot more sense once you know what problem you're actually solving. Day one, it's just one more thing to figure out.